Call for quarantine divides Durga Puja organizers in Kolkata

KOLKATA: A call for week-long quarantine of Durga Puja organizers and volunteers by Forum for Durgotsav, the umbrella body representing over 350 puja organizers in Kolkata, has met with mixed response. While some have started staying home as a measure of abundant caution, others have shrugged off the suggestion, terming it impractical.


“We had requested all puja committees to observe a seven-day quarantine after Durga Puja got over. This was not just about members of puja committees, but also locals who participated and helped organize the puja and volunteers who helped manage the crowds. In my locality, we are staying indoors till at least Sunday,” said forum founder Partho Ghosh, who is also the secretary of Sib Mandir puja on Lake Temple Road.

Forum president Kajal Sarkar, too, has quarantined himself. “I had undergone an operation a few days ago and need to be careful. At the same time, those who were on the frontline of the puja organization need to take a break. During the puja, as well as in the fortnight before that, they would have come in contact with numerous people and could have been infected. Some of them will be asymptomatic. But we need to exercise caution to ensure that others don’t get infected by our carelessness,” said Sarkar.

But not all are convinced about the need for quarantine. Suruchi Sangha general secretary Kingshuk Maitra argued that the exercise was meaningless since the crowd was more at the point where the police set up barricades and not inside the pandal. “We maintained social distancing inside the pandal. But at the point where visitors were stopped, there was no social distancing. Those who manned these points need to exercise caution and undergo checks. We have to anyway make arrangements for Lakshmi puja and offices resume from Monday. So how can we go into quarantine?” he asked.

Sources said there were sporadic cases of organizers showing Covid symptoms, but key members of the forum denied knowledge of any particular case.

The forum had also suggested that the pandal workers and dhak players be tested before and after the Puja to ensure they do not return to their villages with Covid. While many got them tested before the Puja, most skipped the testing after the festival. Forum secretary Saswata Bose, who is also the secretary of

Hatibagan Sarbajanin

, said he had got the pandal workers tested before they returned home to Debra, but the dhakis had returned home in a hurry, unwilling to wait for the tests. At Suruchi Sangha, two workers who had displayed symptoms had been sent to Bangur for check-up and were kept in isolation. However, they were found to be Covid negative.